The Oklahoma City Thunder host the Miami Heat in Game 1 from Oklahoma City.
Head to head, the Heat are 5-2 ATS in the last 7 meetings in Oklahoma City, while the Underdog is 9-4 ATS in the last 13 meetings and the road team is 11-3 ATS in the last 14 meetings. The Thunder are 18-6 ATS in their last 24 games as a favorite of 0.5-4.5, 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games playing on 3 or more days rest and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The Heat on the other hand are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games vs. a team with a winning % above .600, but just 0-6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as a road underdog and 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 NBA Championship games.
I was rooting for the Boston Celtics in Game 7 on Saturday night, however now we get to see the series everyone was hoping for, including the league itself. With LeBron James and Kevin Durant headlining a star studded finals series, ratings should be at an all-time high in what should be one hell of a battle.
With James Harden's emergence this season, the Thunder formed their own big three to create a new too dog out West, one that breezed through the last two NBA champions in Los Angeles and Dallas in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Led by scoring champion Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City then rattled off four straight victories in their conference finals matchup against the favoured San Antonio Spurs after falling in a 2-0 hole early on in the series. The often critisized Miami Heat on the other hand had a much tougher time advancing to the finals for a second straight season, needing seven games to dispatch the aging Boston Celtics after a competative series against the up and coming Indiana Pacers.
I was pretty certain that the Spurs were going to win it all after the way they had been playing in the months leading up to their showdown with the Thunder. However, OKC just outplayed them for the most part of that series and have to be the clear favorite to take out the whole thing now. While it won't be easy, the Heat struggled against a Boston team that is no where near the level that the Thunder are at the moment. Kevin Durant and company are just the better team and they are red hot right now, enough said.....
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